SECT. XIII. OF HOT BEDS. l.fjl 



the same time, it will be in proper order for making a 

 <?ood lasting bed with a steady heat. If in haste, it 

 may be made into a bed after the first heating ; but it 

 will be better for shifting again, or even a third time. 

 When dung is ready before wanted, keep turning it 

 over, lest it be too much spent. It will be proper to 

 begin to work/raft dung a week or ten days before it 

 is to be used ; but if the dung is not fresh, it is only 

 necessary to throw it together for once heating. 



Dunghills, from which it is designed to collect ma- 

 terials for a hot bed, should be taken notice of in 

 time, that they are not left to work themselves weak 

 by long smoking, without opening and turning over. 

 Beds may be made of dung from a week to a month 

 old. 



If heavy rain, cutting wind, or driving snow, should 

 keep the heaps from heating, and the dung is wanted, 

 lay some straw round it, and it will protect and fetch 

 up the heat. If at first putting it together there is 

 not a general moisture in the dung, it must be given 

 it, by casting water evenly over it as it is laid. This 

 may be done with a hand-bowl from a pail, but it 

 would be better to use a large watering pot. No 

 water must be used to dung when it is got dark ; 

 .this is, however, the colour that it should, begin to 

 Jhavje when put together in a bed, which the direc- 

 tions given for working it will bring it to, arid ought 

 not to be neglected. 



The size of a hot bed, as to length and breadth, is 

 (of course) to be according to the frame; and the 

 height of it according to the season, and the degree 

 of heat requisite to the nature of the plant to be 

 cultivated. In a dry soil, a bed may be sunk in the 

 ground, from six inches to a foot, to make it more 

 convenient to get at and manage. But beds made 

 forward in the season should rather be on the sur- 



